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The Chevron Philipps Keystone Award goes out to teams or individuals that have contributed to the success of CPChem by unlocking possibilities and taking initiative beyond their regular job scope. This October 2021, Laurenz Beeckmans of Bertschi Group in Belgium was awarded this recognition. We asked him to walk us through the innovative thinking that led to this achievement.

As a Bertschi Operations Manager, what are your main responsibilities and objectives at the terminal?

I’ve been working at Bertschi Group for some years now, as an Operations Manager at the Plastics Hub at Antwerpen Zomerweg Terminal BVBA (AZT), making sure that everything on site is working both smoothly and efficiently, that our terminal employees are working to the Bertschi standard, and that overall all customer orders are running well. As a member of the Ocean Clean Sweep task force in the port of Antwerp, I also make sure that our operations do not impact the environment.

CPChem just awarded you with the Chevron Philipps Keystone Award, what led to this recognition?

Bertschi Group has been in close and successful cooperation with Chevron Philipps Chemicals (CPChem) for years and within this partnership, we have consistently been helping them improve their product line and supply chain. CPChem’s motto, performance by design, exemplifies an open communication strategy that has led to proven success in the past.

Our most recent project however, definitely stood out as the deciding factor for the keystone award. Channeling Bertschi’s core value of sustainability in the supply chain is one key to making our work a success. In August this year, I launched a project that connects our AZT terminal to the deep-sea ports by barge. By focusing on intermodal transportation through the use of barge and last-mile trucking, we are able to significantly reduce our clients product carbon footprint.

Chevron Phillips Chemicals plant in Tessenderlo, Belgium

Tell us more about this initiative, how did the idea come about, and how did you implement it?

As an innovative logistics company, we are acutely aware of our responsibility in creating sustainable transport solutions and helping our clients achieve a greener business model. Barge and intermodal are the way forward.

Since we do not have dock access at AZT, I reached out to suppliers who might be able to help us in making this ambition a reality. I believe that goals should always be set high, so I wanted to have at least 50% of all shunts barged in. I reached out to one of our partners who have dock access, Trans-Continental logistics, and got to work. We tested the entire concept for three months before making it public. And it worked! No delays, incoming material transport remained smooth, and there was no customer impact felt.

What are the results of this innovative endeavor?

In total for the year 2021, we will be removing up to 2,500 shipping containers from general traffic, and shunting them to our AZT terminal by barge.

I would have never gotten this recognition without the tireless work of our great admin team (Aischa, Sara, Anis, Daniel). Special thanks go out to our partner Trans-Continental Logistics for the support they provided on this project.

How do you see your future work with CPChem, and how this project will evolve?

Our ambition is to increase this by 10% each year—by intermodal shunting in the CP Chem project, to hopefully at some point cover all imports with intermodal transport.

Bertschi is exemplary in its innovative thinking to work on sustainable solutions for our customers. This is only one example in how we can bring customers' supply chains to new levels of efficiency, quality, and sustainability. I want to thank Chevron Philipps for the recognition they gave me, and I look forward to a continued successful partnership for years to come.

Port of Antwerp